


I Can Decipher the Universe

by Caprichoso



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Leopika Week 2018, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 07:47:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15926021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caprichoso/pseuds/Caprichoso
Summary: "Kurapika swivels, a few strands of blond hair that have escaped the utilitarian tie-back Leorio privately calls the Business Bun whirling around and sticking to the sweat on his face. His eyes go wide. 'Leorio? You're home early.''It's almost seven, Pika,' he remarks, arching an eyebrow. 'You lost track of time ag...' He trails off, frowning as his eyes latch onto the source of that awful noise from before. 'Is that a power saw?'"Domestic fluff for the final day of Leopika Week 2018.





	I Can Decipher the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> It just so happens that your friend here (me) is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.
> 
> I'm almost entirely inactive on here thanks to real life, but here's a little something that popped out (a couple days early to the party thanks to an error on my part). The title is taken from the same song as the opening lyrics.

_...Que este mundo gira y algún día he de morir,_  
_Pero contigo_  
_(...That this world turns, and someday I must die,_  
_But with you)_  
_Belanova-- Tus ojos_

* * *

 

When he turns the key to the apartment he and Kurapika share, Leorio smiles and lets his tension fall away as the smell of curry comes billowing out in a burst of warmth. There are few things that relax him down to his very soul quite like coming home to whatever fantastic meal Kurapika tossed in the crockpot that morning, and the leftovers will be both a reprieve from eating out for his lunch break and a pleasant reminder of a lovely night in. Chances are good that Kurapika is home already, too; he'd mentioned hours ago that he only had a few errands to run before he could make it back.

Opening the front door and revealing the kitchen of their tiny little studio, he's greeted by the sight of Kurapika's bare back glistening with sweat as he leans endearingly to one side, a pair of tiny cutoff jean shorts his only concession to modesty in their own private space. There had been one too many instances of their nosier neighbors getting an eyeful of their preferred at-home dress code, so he and Kurapika had agreed that they'd try to stay at least semi-decent until they were both home, but Kurapika is sure to be shedding them soon enough.

Leorio creeps up on his fiancé with arms out and an exaggerated stride, playing at being sneaky but definitely not succeeding in any actual stealth. Still, if Kurapika is distracted enough, he might be able to plant a kiss right behind that red earring...

He's scant centimeters away, can practically hear that delightful little gasp of surprise turning to a contented hum, when a high-pitched whir starts and turns instantly into an ungodly shriek, sending him flailing backwards. He regains his balance just before falling on his ass, but it's a close thing. Mercifully, the sound is over as quickly as it began, leaving only ringing silence. "What in the hell?"

Kurapika swivels, a few strands of blond hair that have escaped the utilitarian tie-back Leorio privately calls the Business Bun whirling around and sticking to the sweat on his face. His eyes go wide. "Leorio? You're home early."

"It's almost seven, Pika," he remarks, arching an eyebrow. "You lost track of time ag..." He trails off, frowning as his eyes latch onto the source of that awful noise from before. "Is that a power saw?"

Blushing has always been an attractive look on Kurapika. He folds his arms defensively across his chest-- a gesture made all the more comical by the fact that he's holding a cordless circular saw that's almost the size of his head. "It's been getting warmer again, and I thought... this year, we have the money to buy an air conditioner. We don't pay utilities on this place, so we don't have to worry about the extra electricity, either."

Memories spring to Leorio's mind of nights spent naked and sticky atop their sheets with their little desk fan on full blast, unwilling to drape a leg or arm over one another for fear of trapping even a fraction more heat than necessary. The heat and humidity had robbed them of hours of sleep, shortened their tempers drastically, and reduced their sex life to practically nil, all the way through the end of a seemingly interminable summer.

"I'm all on board with getting an air conditioner," Leorio says, "But what exactly does that have to do with you sawing through..." He blinked, leaning around his fiancé to get a better look. "Two-by-fours?"

"Our window opens horizontally, not vertically," Kurapika explains, cocking one hip and putting on his Lecture Face. "The kinds of air conditioners made for our window are about three times more expensive, and it's rare to find anyone putting them up for sale on any of the local sites. It's significantly cheaper to buy a regular used air conditioner and build a frame to mount it in the windowsill, then cover the rest of the opening with plywood." He gestures to where, sure enough, a sheet of fairly thick plywood is resting against their kitchen wall, a drill placed at the base keeping it from sliding down across the tile.

Leorio nods slowly, digesting the information. "And so you're... doing that," he manages. "Where did you even get the power tools?"

A strange quirk of Kurapika's lips hints at a humorous secret. "Your friend Zepile owed me a favor."

"Oh god, did he let himself in to raid the fridge while you were naked again and then beg you not to tell me?"

The snorting not-quite-laugh and the grin Kurapika doesn't even attempt to hide are answer enough. "I believe I'm supposed to say, 'No, of course not'."

Leorio snickers. "I can't believe he thinks he needs to protect himself from some macho caveman retaliation on my part. It's not even my junk he got a look at. If you don't feel like killing him over it, why would I care?"

"I'm not complaining," Kurapika says, turning back around and bending down, the top of his thong peeking out as the jean shorts are pulled lower. It's a hell of a view. "The man has an extensive collection of tools, and I now have a free pass to borrow any of them whenever I like."

Even after nearly a year of sharing their apartment, it's still so oddly exciting to Leorio that Kurapika is somehow handy with just about everything that you find in a hardware store. There's something thrilling in knowing he put all the shelves lining their apartment walls up himself, drilled them into the studs or anchored them with lag bolts or something else Leorio has only heard Zepile and Kurapika mention when they're talking shop. It's practically the same as magic to Leorio, and he's content to keep it that way. Like so much about living with Kurapika, he's not going to look too deep into a good thing, especially when so many things are so good.

Lost as Leorio is in his reverie, he's totally unprepared as the saw starts up again, howling its way through another hunk of lumber, which clatters to the floor. "Jeez! A little warning next time?"

Kurapika looks back over his shoulder, still holding the end of the two-by-four that's propped against his leg. "I literally said, 'I'm just going to cut this last one, and then we can eat.' How did you not hear..." He stops short, eyes crinkling in amusement. "You zoned out staring at my ass, didn't you?"

"For your information, I did not! I zoned out because--" Leorio's jaw snaps shut just in time, thankfully. Swallowing, he nods maybe a little too readily. "Okay, yeah, I was staring at your ass."

"Really? Are you sure you don't want to tell me the real reason?" His fiancé has that knowing look on his face as he saunters all two steps over to the kitchen counter and lifts the lid off the crock pot, sending a cloud of steaming, perfectly-seasoned heaven into the air. "I'm not above making you fix your own dinner if you're not going to tell me the truth. I think we have one of those frozen personal pizzas."

"Okay, okay! I was zoning out because..." It takes a moment for Leorio to find the words, and even when he does, they're hard to force out. "I was thinking about how lucky I am that you're with me," he mumbles, and only barely manages to make eye contact.

For a moment, Kurapika just stares at him, mouth slightly open and eyes sparkling with a fragile sort of wonder, as though somehow he might think he's the luckier of them when it's so obviously Leorio. The look is quickly subdued, though, and replaced with his signature know-it-all smirk. With a grace that is somehow only accentuated by those scandalously short shorts, Kurapika steps through the mess of construction materials on their kitchen floor, slings his arms around Leorio's neck, and pulls him down for a kiss. "Much better. Isn't it nice to tell your fiancé everything?" With that, he prances back to the counter, where he removes the lid from the rice cooker, snags a spoon from the drawer, and doles out portions into the bowls he had set up.

Two bowls; he'd known Leorio would cave before he even asked.

Given their severe lack of space and therefore lack of a table, dinner is always eaten on their bed, a pair of trays with cushioned bottoms standing in for a more traditional format. Still, it works for them. One day, when Leorio's med school loans are all paid off and he can get Kurapika onto some good health insurance, they'll be able to start chasing some of those things older generations see as necessities. For now, though, they sit cross-legged, Leorio having hung up his suit and tie, eating from bowls perched on the tiny tables in their laps as Kurapika's laptop plays another episode of the latest series they've been watching together.

It's not a life of luxury, objectively speaking, but it's everything they need.

When dinner is done and Kurapika takes the dishes off to the kitchen, Leorio commandeers the laptop as he has the past few days, opening up an old favorite RPG that's perfect for unwinding. Caught up wandering the fantasy world with his scrappy dwarf and an unlikely band of companions, he barely manages to avoid throwing the laptop in the air when a whole new hellish noise comes squealing from the kitchen, then grinds to a halt in a swift series of knocks, then starts over.

"The fuck are you doing in there?" Leorio says, barely shy of shouting. For a moment he considers setting the laptop aside, but a blond head pops around the corner just as he shifts his load and sits up.

"I have to screw the frame together," Kurapika says, raising a drill to illustrate his point.

Leorio nearly shoots off a snappy comeback about that frame being the only thing Kurapika ends up screwing all week if he keeps giving Leorio heart palpitations like this, but he's not the same confrontational idiot he was when they met so many years ago. He takes a deep breath, reminds himself that Kurapika is doing something nice for the both of them, and forces a nodding smile of understanding, albeit strained. "Maybe if you could warn me before? Today was... not great."

 _Not great_. It's a hell of an inadequate way to describe the feeling of having someone die under his care, second-guessing every little decision he made on a routine case, cursing a workload that means he can't spend more than a few minutes at a time with each patient, shoving away that persistent notion that if he had just been a little more perceptive, a little more thorough, a little _better_ , someone who trusted him would still be alive.

As the thoughts Leorio has been so adamantly avoiding since he left the hospital begin slithering oily tendrils into his brain once more, he barely registers the presence beside him until Kurapika's hand is gently brushing against his cheek. Clever fingers run through the close-cropped hair above his ear, sliding down and spreading along the back of his skull in a way that has him leaning toward Kurapika and letting his eyes drift closed. Over all their years together, years of reading each other, constantly predicting each other's next move in combat and at the grocery store alike, they hardly need words to communicate. Still, they've found a few words here and there keep things running more smoothly, which is why Leorio is expecting it when a gentle voice asks, "Talk about it, or distraction?"

The raw ache in Leorio's gut answers for him. "I need to keep distracting myself for now, I think."

A nod and another gentle scratch behind his ear, and Kurapika's hand is falling away. "All right. I'll wait for you to tell me when. In the meantime, maybe headphones would block out the noise a bit?" Kurapika motions toward the nightstand and his set of over-ear headphones, the ones that he uses when he's in one of his audiophile moods.

Leorio smiles, exhaustion and relief in equal parts weighing down his arteries until he can barely move. "Yeah, that's... yeah, good idea." He starts reaching for the headphones, only to have them placed gently into his hand, and a chaste kiss pressed to his lips. His smile grows just a centimeter.

The headphones help. That's not to say they block out everything; he can still hear the squealing and banging, just like the act of vanquishing digital minions of darkness doesn't drive away the dark thoughts lurking in the corners of his mind. Nothing is a perfect fix, but it's something, and it's enough to help him get through tonight.

Eventually, the intermittent screeches die down for what seems to be the last time, and Leorio cautiously lowers the volume and shifts one earpiece off to the side. A glance up shows his fiancé carrying a mostly-covered frame nearly as big as himself, angling the whole contraption up and into the windowsill with one knee on the couch. A moment later, Kurapika turns and crouches down out of sight, then rises with an air conditioner in his arms, which he slots into the opening. Some fiddling with cords, a pair of Kurta expletives, and a triumphant press of a button later, there is a resounding beep, and Kurapika braces his hands on his knees and leans into a rapidly-cooling breeze, hair streaming behind him.

After a few seconds to enjoy his hard work, he turns and strides over to Leorio, satisfaction at a job well done clear on his face. Leorio all but shoves the laptop aside to grab him and shower him with kisses, heedless of the sweaty, sticky mess of skin against his lips and dress shirt. He's tossing these clothes in the laundry anyway.

One day, Leorio is certain, they'll be at least moderately rich and successful, able to take for granted things that seem like such luxuries at the moment. Still, he hopes the two of them never forget the feeling of their very first air conditioner in their first apartment together. It's always a temptation to focus on the good or bad times, past or future, but in this strange little moment that is their present, living in a tiny place in the bad part of town, they're genuinely happy together. The rest can come when it does.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all reviews will be treasured.


End file.
